حرص حافة العنف

Keen Edge of Violence

Chinese New Year: February 16th, 2018 - Filtering out 'OC', opting for 'All ratings'; only 397 fictions listed Aladdin as their main or lead character. Only 216 are in English. It's rather saddening to compare that to the 456 on Sinbad who is not even a Magi. The last time I updated was 2014, and only 7 fictions featured Aladdin was posted after mine. But it's also nice to know that mine's in Top 10.

Note: I will be using what I hear from the Japanese dub, so I'm using Reim instead of Leam, Judar instead of Judal, Torao instead of Traffy (okay, I digressed, this one's One Piece).

الفصل 2

Dreams Could Be Real

When Aladdin came out of the dark room and saw the sky for the first time, he had a hard time describing it. Well, it was pretty useless for someone who was seeing the seemingly endless property for the first time to describe what looking at the sky for the first time was like. It took Ugo more minutes than what was deserved to convince Aladdin that it wasn't a floating ocean.

This place tops everything but the magical tunnel at the end of the dungeon Aladdin has seen on Earth.

The large brackish tidal bay or lagoon they had to cross to reach Kō Teikoku was called the Marakaibo Lake, and fleeting lightning strikes the body of water every two seconds. Thunder takes place in giant storm clouds at foothills of mountains. The lightning often is orange and red. Aladdin really likes how they look like splashes of colour against the dark ocean and purple clouds and the distant thunder they make.

If there's going to be more awesome places like this, Far East lands are going to be fascinating!

"Lake Marakaibo is one of Kou Empire's line of defense. Impressive, isn't it?" Hakuei smiled at her little charge's estactic expression. Despite how dangerous it sounds, the lightning only strikes at the body of water, and never reaches the ground she, Aladdin, and her troop are currently resting on for a little while.

"Defense line? So it's like a wall that surrounds your home!"

Hakuei seemed to try her best to keep the smugness off of her expression. "Well, the lake is only a part of the wall that defends my home. Kou Empire already conquers more than half of the world. Lake Marakaibo was created by our High Priest to defend Rakushou – our capital city's south border."

His eyes widened in wonder. "Judar made this lake?"

Calm, one of Hakuei's senior soldiers with dirty blond hair who was a vegetarian not because he loves animals; but because he hates plants, shared a grin. "It was a really awe-inspiring thing to witness, little Magi!"

"Yeah! You don't get to see a guy making a two hundred feet deep lake out of nowhere and electrifying the sky!" Inko barked too while her hands cleaned her helmet. She carried herself in way that reminded Aladdin of the niisan who tried to kill himand Alibaba – her posture was vaguely arrogant.

The other soldiers of the Northern Station Corps of Kou Empire pitched in their variety of commentaries. A significant number ignored the congenial mood. They were those who hadn't accepted their Princess' friendly attitude to the child who had killed many of their comrades – however treatorous.

As they trecked through the lands, Aladdin had pretty much tried to make friends with all of them.

"Oooh, what are THOSE?!"

"They're butterfly cocoons. To make the transition into adulthood, the caterpillar inside of the encasing has to liquify and literally rebuild itself before it's ready to emerge as the beautiful adult that it is."

"Oh, it's puberty. Like acne!" He rudely pointed at an example that was innocently sitting on her face.

Inko sent him flying for that, but it dropped any puffy formalities between them.

"We are never going there again," Calm hissed in agitation. His left eye twitching at their young blue-haired escort.

"I agree. What kind of buffet runs out of food anyway!" Aladdin yelled.

"Our ledger is 6 feet deep thanks to you, you little sh—magi!"

He couldn't make them stop referring him as 'young sire' or 'Magi' but he did succeed in making them to stop bowing or saluting him. They seem to mistakenly believe Aladdin would raze the ground if he was slighted even just slightly. Stomping an entire hill of their former friends was definitely not the best impression.

None of the humans had tried to kill him though.

Aladdin was also getting to know Hakuei better. The more he spent time with her, she seemed more like a teacher than an army general to him, considering she talks smartly and shares her smiles a lot more than she made orders. She had faint scars painting her body, the most prominent were the three puncture wounds from the arrows she was hit a week ago, but she never flinched even though rain had poured down upon them. He also knew that her cooking was very bad, though not from first hand experience. He found out from Seisyun who had excessively thanked that there was no stove available for the princess to cook as he ate their food stock and gradually getting harried at the closer they reached Rakushou.

"This lake is very pretty..." The sky near the horizon was orange, contrasting the dark waters which highlights the purple and white clouds raining down yellow and red lightnings, "but isn't it also in the way?"

"There's a special way to enter the capital city. You have to keep it a secret, okay?" Inwardly, Hakuei tried to think of better ways to guarantee Aladdin to keep the promise. She had no doubt that he would keep it to himself, but he was young and children often forget the promises they make if they weren't very emotional, and Aladdin seemed the type who would purposefully break promises if that would mean he can help someone – the nice kids always do. "We don't want any stray cats to enter our safe place, get it?"

He ooohed. "I see. We have to protect the mice in the city!"

All the adults laughed at the thought of comparing Kou Empire nobility with mice.

. o . 0 . o .

Alibaba found himself being thanked by six dirty, very grateful slaves.

"Thank you so much, Mister Alibaba!"

"Well," Alibaba smiled at them and opened the door. They were given a wash to clean themselves, clothes to replace their rags, and a bag of gold coins enough to last them for four weeks. "I know what it feels like, so I'm very glad to be able to help. You guys should go now."

One of the ex-slaves, a young girl with black hair, looked up at him with teary puppy eyes. "Your house is so empty, Mister. Do you need company?"

Oh, he'll love the "company", but the house was empty for a reason. He wanted to find Aladdin.

At the end of their journey they were separated. Morgiana ended up just outside of town. She couldn't find his young friend anywhere, and would be leaving to make a new life and in the mean time would try to find the little wizard. Alibaba wanted to find Aladdin too, but the boy could have ended up anywhere in the world. But Alibaba had told Aladdin that he had business in Balbadd so in case Aladdin comes back to Qishan, Alibaba made sure everyone he could talk to would recognize Aladdin (it was an easy task – they already knew the boy with beautiful hair ransacking places for food) and would give him a message that Alibaba was heading to Balbadd just in case Aladdin went back to Qishan – assuming he doesn't go straight to Balbadd.

Alibaba can't waste anymore time to save Balbadd. Aladdin was like a barely controlled hurricane delivering him just what he needs to save the starving kingdom. The years passing by had been chipping away at his hope, but then Aladdin came and believed in him.

The worst feeling is when you disappointed those who believe in you.

So Alibaba paid some more farewells. Hid his remaining treasure under crates of food, sat on his driver's seat and gazed at the familiar view of open road pass the horse he found unoccupied, and left Qishan a resurrected city under the control of a fair mayor.