"Stop complaining, if you don't want to feel it, I can permanently turn all your senses off. Is that a better alternative?"

Ah, I keep forgetting that Bonger can hear all my thoughts… I guess there will come a time when I will wish to go back to the times when it… or rather he would respond only when approached!

"You do realise I can hear those thoughts as well? But since that annoys you, let me pretend I can't do it."

This little…

It was the first time when I realised how hard it was to hold myself from thinking about something. As if the human nature was made to defy their own wishes, the harder I tried to stop thinking about the matter, it only turned more and more persistent in appearing in my mind!

"I hope I can get to the island before night."

Since any attempt on avoiding the topic only pushed my mind deeper into its embrace, the best way to achieve my current goal was to change the focus. Even if talking to myself could be considered a rather worrying signal, there was no one around on the vast expanse of the sea, so at least I didn't need to worry about this moment spreading out.

"Are you sure about that?"

Just when I managed to convince myself that I could think of anything else, this d.a.m.ned Bonger had to b.u.t.t in and break my composture!

But no, thinking this way will only mean playing right into his cards. 

"With how nice the weather was today, I think I can clearly hope for an awesome view of a starry sky!"

As I continued to fight this losing battle over my own dignity with this parasite nesting in my mind, my hands never stopped rowing, quickly pus.h.i.+ng me into the influence of the already familiar current.

Since I didn't want to destroy the boat upon detaching myself from it, I actually started rowing furiously while I was still pa.s.sing the island, hoping that my sideways momentum would get strong enough by the time I would get to the most opportune place.

Be it my calculation or my pure luck, I managed to realise my plan without any hiccups this time, keeping the boat in one piece, even if during my fight with the current, it started slowly taking on the water in a few places.

Well, nothing a few pieces of nailed wood couldn't fix…

"To be honest, I don't really understand why didn't you just craft one boat for yourself. Why are you soo keen on using this fragile piece of planks?"

With Bonger once again breaking his promise to stop interfering without me asking, I almost couldn't hold the urge to facepalm.

Didn't you consider the point of me trying not to wake you up? But yeah, since I already had the boat at hand, it didn't cross my mind to make a new one. It's not like I had any spare wood back at the tower anyway.

"Since that's the case, how about making one as soon as we arrive? I browsed through your memories, and it seems that there is nothing that could pose any threat to you on that island, so instead of wasting your time to make some temporary housing, wouldn't crafting boats be a better idea? This way, you could get a vessel capable of carrying a lot more people!"

I'm not gonna deny, this is actually a plausible idea, but it depends on a few things I need to check out first. There is no point making a bigger s.h.i.+p if their families will refuse to go with me in the first place. I should've asked them for something that would allow me to convince those people that they sent me with goodwill, instead of just asking for their names.

As I continued to paddle, the boat quickly closed in, to the same place I arrived at before. While I had the capability to get on the dry land in any place of my choosing, I wasn't sure whether I would be able to retract my steps from before in order to find the refugee camp if I were to start from a different point.

After reaching the level of shallow waters, I jumped out of the s.h.i.+p and pulled it ash.o.r.e, before jogging towards the forest. From what I remembered, I just roamed around for a bit before happening upon the camp, so it was bound to be somewhere close to the entrance. 

Yet no matter how hard I was looking, I was unable to find a single signature of mana, despite stretching my perception to its limits!

Giving up on the easy way to find those people, I just started roaming around, in hopes of stumbling into them once again, but the only thing I found was actually a deserted remnants of the camp, that looked like a tornado swept through it, with the only exception being that a violent winds wouldn't be able to cause such destruction inside a d.a.m.ned forest!

Out of the big gathering I remembered, I could spot only a few broken-down tents, extinguished fireplace and a bit of occasional foul stench, indicating that this place didn't avoid the death, despite no corpses lying around.

At this point, I had to acknowledge that I was too late to the rescue.

Looking at the state of what remained, there was no way it was done by the wild animals. The former campsite was destroyed in such a through way that only humans would be capable of doing so!

I guess I had to visit the village of the Overlord in order to get those people back to their families!