A Journey Alone, for the Sake of Memory

Because his pockets were completely empty, Achill had no choice but to set aside his pride as a mage and find himself a temporary job in Kaisa City.//. //

The job was simple, but the pay was extremely high! And it was also an exceptionally, exceptionally noble profession! A great occupation dedicated to serving the people!!! Since it was such a wonderful profession, it had to be in high demand, right?

But in reality, the exact opposite was true. No one had applied for this great profession of serving the people in a long time. The reason was simple: this unprecedented and unsurpassed undertaking had one fatal flaw—it smelled a little bad, and doing it was a little embarrassing...

An embarrassing job was understandable enough. After all, there were plenty of well-paid but undignified jobs in this world! But what did any of that have to do with the word "smelly"?

Oh, it was actually quite simple. This noble undertaking was called cleaning out the night soil. To put it plainly, uh, carrying manure~

Don't look down on this profession just because of that! A city produced quite a lot of waste every day, and naturally, someone had to clean it up. Otherwise, wouldn't the whole city become unbearably stinky?

So this profession was still extremely important and deserved everyone's respect! They dirtied themselves to keep others clean.

Of course, our great protagonist Achill had always been a compassionate person who loved thinking of others. Therefore, for the sake of Gajeel's reputation, to wash away the sins Gajeel had incurred from stealing, and also for the sake of Gajeel's future psychological development in a healthy and positive direction, Achill decisively, reluctantly, and with tears in his eyes, handed this great job of serving the people entirely over to Gajeel...

Then what did he do himself? Oh, so as not to hinder our Iron Dragon's great undertaking of serving the people, protagonist Achill steadfastly took on the role of a supporting character for the time being. With unwavering conviction, he silently supported and covered for Gajeel from the rear. Specifically, he took care of things like collecting the wages and running errands, accepting the burden all by himself without hesitation or refusal! So? Wasn't our protagonist just great~

At this, aside from Gajeel, who was so grateful he wanted to kill him and chop him into pieces, Achill himself continued maintaining his admirable low-key attitude, remaining very humble~

After getting some money, Achill was in no hurry to leave. Instead, he repeatedly searched throughout the city, trying to find something that might stir up memories of his past, all so he could recover his old memories as soon as possible!

In truth, he wanted to recover his past memories so badly he was nearly going mad!! It was not merely because he was curious about his former background and identity. More importantly, perhaps because of his amnesia, Achill always felt as if his soul were incomplete! So instinctively, he desperately wanted to make his soul whole again!!!

He could not wait another moment. He needed to recover his lost memories as quickly as possible and find his truest self again!

After searching for three straight days, Achill still could not find any clues or leads whatsoever concerning his past memories in this city.

Although he felt helpless about it, he could only give up temporarily. Of course, giving up here only meant giving up searching in this city, not giving up on finding his memories altogether. After all, the world was so vast. If he could not find any clues here, then he could just continue searching in other cities!! Besides, he was only thirteen years old. If there was one thing he had plenty of, it was time! He had more than enough time to search slowly. If one year was not enough, then two. If two were not enough, then three. If three were not enough, then ten, or even decades! He refused to believe that after searching for decades, he still would not find even the slightest clue related to himself?!

By then, he probably would not even need to search deliberately, right? After all, if decades truly passed, he probably would not need to look for clues related to himself anymore. He might just recover his memories on his own, right?!!

All right, enough nonsense. Having set a goal for himself, Achill remained in Kaisa City for another week. The reason he stayed so long was mainly because he needed to make money! A whole lot of money!

He had already decided that he would not return to the city where he had originally lived. Instead, he would set out from Kaisa City to travel the world. His first journey in search of his memories would begin in Kaisa City!

However, even though he had made up his mind, there was still someone in his old city whom he could not help worrying about. It would be too heartless to leave just like that. After all, Le Qi was his savior, and it seemed that girl also held some inexplicable feelings for him. He, too, thought rather highly of her!

So even if he was leaving, he had to consider how she would live from then on! The only thing he could do was try his best to meet her most basic living conditions and material needs!

During that week, in order to get as much money as possible, Achill did not hesitate to temporarily become a flower thief—cough, cough, a notorious bandit—and attacked three nearby Dark Guilds in succession!

Naturally, all the guilds he targeted were small Dark Guilds. His goal was mainly money, so he did his best to avoid major direct conflicts with the mages of those Dark Guilds. Usually, he would sneak quietly in through the front door without anyone noticing, grab a few unlucky mages and give them a thorough beating before asking where the treasury was, then go straight to raid it! So? Pretty low-key, wasn't it? Well, he certainly thought so...

Naturally, he could not avoid fighting people from those Dark Guilds entirely. Though Achill considered his infiltration methods quite flawless, and though he had always considered himself a lover of peace, if he happened to run into someone during an infiltration, he could only use violence to peacefully resolve the matter...

After acquiring enough money to support Le Qi for several whole years, Achill prepared to send it all to her in the distant city, leaving himself only a small amount for travel expenses. In his view, if he ran out of money in the future, he could always go rob—cough, borrow from—Dark Guilds again! How convenient~

Sheesh, it seemed this guy had gotten addicted to robbing people...

Still, Achill's luck was rather good. Just as he was preparing to send the money to Le Qi, he happened to run into Guild Master Abudu, who had come to Kaisa City for a job. This really was perfect timing! Great! There was no need to mail the money separately anymore; he could simply have Abudu bring it back! He even saved on postage.

Besides the living expenses he had prepared for Le Qi, Achill also had Abudu bring back a letter to give her. The letter contained some comforting words, a brief explanation for why he was leaving, and reminders for her to take good care of herself.

With his worries settled, Achill did not linger any longer. Carrying only simple luggage, he set off on his journey to travel the world and seek his memories.

What about Gajeel?

Oh, he had forgotten to mention it. During the week Achill spent "earning money" in Kaisa City, another little incident had occurred. While Achill was out robbing a Dark Guild for the second time to "make money," Gajeel had untied his own ropes and secretly escaped. As for where he had gone, that was beyond Achill's knowledge. Achill himself did not particularly care about Gajeel's escape. In his view, the other man's "remaining value" had already been squeezed dry. Besides carrying manure, he truly could not think of any other use for a Dragon Slayer like Gajeel. Keeping him around would only have been a nuisance, so Gajeel's escape actually suited his wishes perfectly. In Achill's own words, it was like someone bringing toilet paper just when he needed to take a dump—what was there not to like?

For the sake of memory, even if a journey alone was lonely and solitary, it was all worth it!

At least, that was how Achill saw it—