Chapter 137 137 Zach Smith



Due to that Olaf had all his attention now.

"We would like you to help bridge the gap between the royal family and Zach. We trust you to be a resourceful man and want to entrust this matter to you so that we can rest easy. We don't want to lose the goodwill of a man so filled with potential because of a misunderstanding caused by a fool."

eaglesnovɐ1,сoМ George considered his words in his heart before uttering them loudly in response to Prince Olaf's request.

"I will try my best and will do what I can to the best of my abilities but the truth is that even I don't know where Zach is at the moment. We did facilitate his escape but all we did was provided him the means. The destination was chosen by Zach himself. If he makes himself known to us, I will help you convey the gesture of your goodwill to him; that much I can promise you."

…

Zach and his group had been travelling all this time using the carriages drawn by the help of horses. The only time they stopped and camped outside in the open was when the horses needed to rest or when it was time to eat.

The speed of their travel wasn't as brisk as it would have been had they made use of the trucks. But that would attract unnecessary attention towards the group which Zach wanted to avoid in all conditions.

He was yet to be sure that the royal family had truly let go of him and the Luther family. In fact they had already found out that there was no warrant for their arrest even after they had escaped the Mesore state where the security was supposed to be the tightest. They exercised caution whenever they crossed any populated area and covered themselves using cloaks and masks in order to hide their identity.

Zach and his companions were currently walking on thin ice and they needed to take all the precautions they could. Therefore, Zach made a prudent decision to change his surname which would allow him to keep his identity a secret in front of strangers he had never met before. Previously when he was a video game player in the last world, he used the name 'Smith' for his avatar. Therefore, he employed the same as his last name in this world in order to hide his true name.

"Zach Smith" the sound of his new name excited him somewhat as if his two lives, the one based on reality and the other in the world of the games had been merged together to create the essence of his whole life.

"I am going to be Zach Smith from now on. Please take great care when using my name in front of strangers again. Just as a precaution, I would suggest you and Diana to use the same surname as well for some time, at least until we can be sure that the royal family really holds nothing against us and has truly let us go." said Zach as he seriously looked towards Diana and Bruce so that they could think on his words and also convey these instructions to the Luther family people.

"I agree, I think that this is a great plan. I think that if we pretend to be married to each other. That would be a more plausible front for the strangers. That way I can also comfortably don your surname since I obviously look like I am from some well known family but your temperament states otherwise. You like to be free which would attract the suspicions of those looking for it."

Diana agreed without even thinking properly. It felt to Bruce that she was agreeing to every word that Zach uttered without even blinking like a good little wife. He could tell what his sister wanted to do by carrying out this little play but didn't call her out on it. He knew his sister and her temperament. She was bound to become more stubborn after she set her eyes on an objective. Zach was the newest obsession in her mind and Bruce felt that he would only be safe if he tried not to expose his little sister's secret.

Bruce too carried along with the farce. Since his sister had already agreed, there was no need for him to flex. As such he nodded to Zach and became Bruce Smith instead of his real surname.

Zach received their positive replies and turned around to leave inside his tent where his companion was asleep. Ninety percent of all the worry in his heart was directed towards Luna who was still unconscious after her battle with the panther. It had been weeks but there was no change in her condition as if she had been frozen in time. Had it not been for the breath that she was still drawing, Zach might have thought that she was already dead and it was just her dead body that he had been lugging around with him.

While the others couldn't help him with her condition, they didn't at least mind him carrying her about with him everywhere they went. They could only whisper amongst each other that Luna had lost her soul and would never wake up again. Thankfully, they didn't try to burst Zach's bubble or they might have suffered from his wrath due to their ignorance. Unlike them, Zach knew what being in coma was thanks to the advanced medical practices in his previous world. Therefore, he wasn't as tense as the others since he knew that she was bound to come to her senses when she recovered from the damage she had accrued during the fight with the panther.

Zach was so upset at her condition that he tried to seek the system's help on many occasions, pleading with it to tell him a solution to her condition. The system on the other hand acted like a cruel bastard who had nothing to do with him. Sometimes, it didn't even bother to answer his questions while other times it told him that it knew nothing about this particular system or that it had not data regarding this kind of situation in its database.

The journey didn't stop in the meanwhile as the group continued to cross the land in search of the promised coastal areas. A few more weeks passed by again and the journey of the Smith family was about to let them encounter the state of Kanewea soon. After crossing the state of Mesore, this was another major state that they had to encounter before reaching their destination.

Along the way, there was a noticeable increase in the density of the mosquitoes along the route. As they got closer to the coastal areas, the mosquitoes and the other insects were higher in number and the temperature of the surroundings kept on increasing as if they were in a cooking pot and someone had forgot to put off the stove due to which the temperature kept on rising.

Zach felt that the status quo could not be tolerated any longer because it was only a matter of time before an epidemic like measles or malaria broke out amongst the people following after him on this long journey.

Instead of waiting for the disease outbreak, Zach felt that he should be more proactive. Thankfully for him and his people that the system still had some basic support items left even after Zach lost all the energy that he had accumulated from Luna.

And amongst these daily supplies, Zach had items like the insect repellent that could help the people survive such harsh conditions with some semblance of comfort. Diana was frustrated since the bullets that they had with them couldn't do anything to the mosquitoes due to their small size. As such they covered themselves up completely so as to avoid coming into contact with the mosquitoes as a preventive measure.

Zach then pulled out several bottles of the insecticides and distributed them to the group in a fair manner. He also gathered everyone and told them about how to make use of the things he had given to them.

The Luther family people were all shocked at Zach's means and the things that he was capable of. This kind of acts replenished their faith in the god that they had decided to follow in their life. That faith hadn't diminished even after Zach had been unable to take down the panther on his own.

The Luther family had taken root in the Elizabeth city since their founding and there was not a single time that they had to leave the city like this as a whole no matter how tough the situation around them grew. Even when Bruce lost his legs and his sister was being harassed by a beastly thing, the Luther family had stayed put and fought back in any manner they could.  Therefore, this was the first journey for the Luther family as a whole and the servants had a hard time getting used to the changing surroundings and the hardships that came with moving in such a large group. Bruce and Diana too for the first time realized how lacking their management skills were when leading a group as large as this on an exodus. There was always a lack of some supplies, or there was always someone who found something unfair in the distribution of supplies. Thankfully, the majority of the people were those who were following the Luther family because they believed in the family head or Zach. Therefore, it was easy to devolve any situation before it could escalate.