Chapter 1: Land of Minutes -What You Choose to Do-

“Hey, Kino?”

“Yeah?”

“You sure you’re okay with this?” 

Hermes asked me again. I sighed, looking up at the sky a bit to ponder, as I wasn’t quite sure how to answer him clearly. The guy we met yesterday was a strange one, he had an interesting personality, but he was friendly and nice to us. He wasn’t a bad person, but I can’t remember why he wanted to come along with us, or even why he tagged along in the first place.

I didn’t mind him, but what was in it for him? Surely it would’ve been easier for him to explore on his own with the abilities he had, wouldn’t it of been?

“Yes, if he can take care of himself, it’s fine. I don’t have a problem if wants to stay with us for now.”

But I’m still genuinely curious to why he wanted to join us. 

“Hey Hermes?”

“Hm? What is it Kino?”

“I’m going to go check up on him, I’ll be back soon.”

“Okay, take care.”

I got up and left Hermes at the campsite, and briskly walked through the wilderness until I reached an opening in the trees that ended in a cliff. There, I saw him standing at the edge. His skin shone a bright gold, yet I found it interesting that he wasn’t painful to look at. Strangely enough, the shine he emanated was somehow quite pleasant, almost like it radiated warmth to my eyes. He seemed to glow only ever so faintly in the moonlight despite how bright he seemed, with large blue eyes that twinkled like the stars in the night sky that he stared at, with glowing pupils in the center, staring at the night sky.

He was a really strange being, he definitely didn’t look human, but he didn’t really act like he wasn’t one either. He was friendly, polite, yet had a distinct personality that made him feel genuine, and not that he was pretending out of courtesy. If he was an alien, he certainly leaves a good impression on his species, at least for me. 

“Hey Anetheus.”

“Hmm? Hey, what’s up Kino?” 

“Nothing, just checking up on you, seeing that you’re probably unfamiliar with this whole practice.”

“Hmm…” He tilted his head and mused a bit. “Somewhat? I do travel in my own way, but not really like this specifically.”

Curious. I didn’t know much about him, his past, or what adventure he took part of, and I felt like I wouldn’t for a while. He had an air of open mystery around him, as if he was welcoming for both of us to get more acquainted, but I also felt that I wasn’t going to learn about his story for a while despite the fact he was who wanted to come with me. 

“You’re probably wondering why I wanted to join you, right?”

Surprising. I wasn’t directly thinking that, but it has been on my mind.

“Yeah…I guess. It’s just all a bit sudden with you coming along. Usually people keep to themselves, so it was a surprise to see someone so enthusiastic to talk to me, let alone come along with me.”

It was strange. I’ve never met him, nor have I heard a single thing about him before. Yet he seemed mildly familiar with me, yet curious. 

“Ah I don’t blame you. I for one think it’s interesting for you to be so open to accepting another traveler, especially with that someone being me.”

He had a point, most people would probably be put off with how he acts so strangely friendly. But I could tell that harm was far from anything that he wanted to inflict, and that he was surprisingly trustworthy. So I thought why not.

"Well, it's a long story, but it's mostly because I wanted to experience your journey, if just a little."

"My journey? Is there something about me that you're interested in?"

"Yeah, definitely."

I looked at him strangely.

"Oh! No not in that way, I literally just met you after all. I meant your lifestyle and something I can't quite explain to you quite yet, but it’s something personal to myself, something I feel I can gain with the help of you.”

I thought about his statement, deciding to let the topic go for now as it was late and I could feel my consciousness waning. 

“It’s no problem. Anyway, I’m heading to sleep soon, so you should to. We’ll have a quick breakfast and we’ll be making our way to the next country right afterwards. Is that okay with you?” I asked him inquisitively, mildly interested by his response. 

“Sure, no problemo! Although I usually have trouble sleeping, so it’ll happen when it happens. Have fun waking me up in the morning haha~”

A casual reply, I smiled at it and nodded at him before heading back to Hermes and our camp. He was definitely a nice person, easy to get along with. It wouldn’t be too hard to take care of him if all he needed was some food like he said, and even then I don’t think I would’ve minded if he needed a bit more anyways. 

He just seemed like a good person to get to know. 

---

“Hey Kino?”

“What is it Hermes?”

“He’s moving quite smoothly isn’t he?”

I glanced over to my right, Anetheus was steadily cruising at our speed with a pair of wings that seemed to work by radiating energy. He really was a strange creature, with wings like those, he could probably travel at far higher speeds in relative convenience, so why did he bother following along with us?

“Yeah, must be convenient for him.”

“Hey Kino, if you had wings like that, would you use them over me?”

“Hmm, probably not. It could be convenient, but riding a motorrad just seems more familiar to me.”

“Good to hear, I don’t want to be replaced anytime soon.”

I laughed a bit at his quip, before realising that the laughter had two sources. I looked to my right again and noticed Anetheus chucking a lot.

“C’mon! I doubt you’d be replaced anytime soon Hermes. You’re basically Kino’s partner you know? Convenience is nothing compared to a good friend.”

Cheesy...is what I would say, but he wasn’t wrong, and his statement was somewhat endearing to our relationship.

“Besides…I see her point. It is more easier to move with something like a motorrad, it’s simply a unique experience.”

“Hmm? So you’d like a motorrad too?” Hermes asked him.

“I’d definitely like to try one out one day. Although I don’t know if I could keep it, nor if I could use it very much. So probably not sadly.”

“Hmm, don’t you need to move a lot?”

“Yes, but in different ways that a motorrad simply can’t go on.”

“Is that why you have those wings?”

“No, they’re for something hardly related.”

Hermes seemed to be able to converse with Anetheus on a topic, so it was comforting to know they got along well. As we continued on the path, we eventually saw the walls of our country’s destination. 

“Hey, both of you, the country’s in sight.”

“Ah, a real country!” Anetheus excitedly exclaimed, “can’t wait to see how this one works!”

He was rather excited at the prospect, possibly he didn’t visit many countries on his adventures? Regardless, we continued to cruise down the path, and reached our destination relatively quickly soon afterwards.

When we arrived at the gate for the country, the guard at the gate came out to check about our entry. He was understandably, very suspicious about Golden Anetheus’ appearance, but he ultimately let it slide as some strange experiment result from a faraway country. I sighed, this was more than likely going to be a common recurrence with him. Other than that, I began my standard routine of stating our business as travellers and that we were planning to stay in the country for a while. Nothing was particularly out of the ordinary until the guard asked for the duration of our stay.

“We’ll be staying for 3 days please.”

“3 days? I’m sorry Miss, what’s a day?”

I cocked my head in surprise. The guard didn’t know what a day was? Possibly it was a custom of the country, wouldn’t be surprised. 

“Hang on,” Anetheus interrupted “you don’t know what a day is?”

The guard looked at him strangely before answering. “I’ve…not heard of one…do you mean an hour?”

“No…she meant a day….a full day is 24 hours, right?”

The guard began to look at Anetheus warily again. “I have no clue what you’re talking about sir. Do you need to see a doctor or something?”

Anetheus evidently wasn’t familiar with how to react with the potential culture differences in other countries. Whatever kind of travelling he was doing before meeting me must’ve been mostly away from other people. I was about to interrupt before Anetheus seemed to catch what was going on and replied relatively politely for once. “Ah…no that won’t be necessary, thank you for your concern sir.”

Not long after he stepped back I heard him whispering to himself. Shrugging, I told the guard that we were staying for 72 hours, and with that he let us into the country. 

As we entered the country, Hermes piped up.

“Hey, Anetheus.”

“Yeah?” He replied.

“About what happened back at the gate, didn’t you realise the guard was very suspicious about you? When you questioned him like that, even I almost felt like I could break a sweat. You could’ve been arrested back there, you know?” 

Anetheus let out an awkward laugh. “Yeah I tend to be quite bad with reading the situations in social situations,” he replied casually, “I forgot that most countries have some really far out-there rules that other lands don’t have. I won’t make that mistake again, promise.”

I made a mental note of Anetheus’ horrible situational awareness in conversations, hoping to myself that it wasn’t a similar case in combat at least. 

As we walked throughout the town, we bumped into a few people that looked like they were in a rush. Anetheus soon noted that everyone in the town looked like they were busy in some shape or form. People in the stores were either on a myriad of strange devices correlating to their job, and there were constantly people running around. As we continued to walk, I noticed their faces and expressions more and more. Their faces looked droopy and almost pale, like they lacked color. Their eyes were bloodshot and their breathing seemed to be very quick and sporadic. 

I personally wasn’t bothered very much, but Anetheus definitely seemed to be quite unnerved. 

---

A day into our stay, we began exploring the country. As we walked around the streets, we learned about just how large it was. As we looked around, we noticed more clearly that the country was very modern, with buildings of metal and concrete sandwiching a maze of streets, and at the center of the country was a large clock tower that towered over the rest of the country. 

“I guess we don’t need to worry about keeping track of time.” Hermes had noted the first time that we saw the tower. 

People were still rushing and running, and they all seemed to be very busy. Last night, Anetheus told us that it mildly unnerved him how everyone was, it was like they were being brainwashed into crazed drones. I could sort of see where he was coming from, but it was just a silly sounding fear that exaggerated the quirk of this country. 

We randomly entered a snack store to try out the local foods and selections. The counter was at the far back section of the store, and when we looked at it, we noticed nobody was there. However, the lights were still open so we assumed that the person would be back soon. The store had my standard biscuits so I took a bit of those, and bought a few bottles of water and local snacks to try out on the trip. Anetheus didn’t add to much to the box, saying that he didn’t want to be a big burden as already stated, but he commonly eyed a strange, neon pink drink a lot as we walked along drinks section, eventually he caved and put one into the basket. 

I didn’t question his tastes. 

We went up to the counter and realised that n but a bell. Anetheus shrugged and hit it, and only seconds later there was a lady with brown hair running down from upstairs to greet us.

“Greetings! So you want to purchase these items?” She quickly asked.

“Yes please.” I asked. 

Anetheus instead however seemed to be examining the woman, looking carefully at her, and noticed something clipped on the side of her skirt.

“Is that a clock?” he asked.

The lady responded while doing her work. “The one on my hip? Yes, that’s my personal clock. Everyone in this town has one.” 

“But isn’t there a huge clock just outside?” Hermes chirped in quizzically. 

“Maybe, but it’s far more comforting to know the time you’re using for yourself.”

She packed the items into bags and gave them to us.

“Thanks for shopping here, please come back soon!”

“Thank you.” I replied. Just as the lady was tidying up the counter, Anetheus stepped to the side of the window at the other side of the store to look at the large clock outside.

“Hey guys, it’s already half an hour past noon, shouldn’t we be looking for a place to eat soon? 

The lady stopped and looked at me nervously. “Sir…are you sure about that? My clock says it’s still 11:25…”

He looked out the window at the clock tower to check again. “…No,” he said “it definitely says 12:30. Maybe your clock is slow?”

The lady paused before looking at me at a shocked expression. She began to utter “No…no no no this can’t be true! This can’t be true!!! My time couldn’t be late!!” She yelled loudly, running to the back of the room and fumbling up the stairs.

“Wait, Miss!” Anetheus leaped through the store in one amazing jump. He shot past me, and zipping above the counter with amazing agility and precision, and landed perfectly behind the counter, chasing right after her. I followed suit, telling Hermes to stay put while I ran into the back.

By the time I reached the rooftop, Anetheus was holding the lady back by her arm, while she was struggling to get free. She screamed, eyes locked on at the sky.

“The time! The time! I NEED TO FIX MY TIME!” she wailed, yelling nonsensically. 

“Calm down!” I yelled. Anetheus seemed to exude an air of panic and distress in the situation, he was struggling to keep her from moving. The girl then suddenly broke out of his grip and ran in the direction of the tower.

“MY TIME! MY TIME! WHAT WAS MY TIME CLOCK?!” She screamed panically, tripping over the  edge, and falling to the ground below.

*thump*

The sound of her landing on the ground lurched my mind as it came to the realisation of what just happened. I was completely caught off guard. Anetheus seemed to not be able to process the sight that he just saw. He turned to me slowly, I could feel strong emotions of chaos, confusion and hints of trauma exuding from his eyes. 

Voices began to raise at the bottom of the building. 

“Oh no! Did she just fall?!”

“Ah damn, another one.”

“Someone call an ambulance!”

Indistinguishable chaos and screams echoed through the town below. Some people seemed surprised, some people sounded pitiful. I however, just stood there in awe, processing the events that just conspired in front of me. I looked to Anetheus again who stood in front of me, and in that time, I felt strange. I was used to unexpected death on my journey, but I felt inside myself an idea of what Anetheus was feeling. While he was familiar with it, it felt like he did not seem to be able to comprehend the reason, and he didn’t know what to think in this situation. I felt a sympathy with his emotions of shock, and simply walked to him, taking is hand with my own, and holding it tightly to try and comfort him. 

His blue, galaxy-like eyes stared right back at me. 

“It’s okay…I’m here for you.”

---

“She caused quite the commotion, didn’t she?” Hermes stated. 

“Yeah…it really was sudden.” 

Half an hour passed since the incident, and there was an ambulance on the scene and people inspecting the incident. Anetheus seemed to have calmed down from the situation before, seeming more like his normal self again, and I didn’t feel any intense emotions radiating out of him like on the roof, silently hoping that he was genuinely better. Out of curiosity, I walked over to a medic who was busy writing notes.

“Pardon me sir, can you tell me why this woman acted the way she did?”

“Hm? Are you not from here miss?” The medic responded, not looking up from his paper.

“Yes, we’re travellers. So we are very confused when we saw what happened.”

“I see, well it’s not your fault. She was probably terrified of losing her own time when she learned her clock broke down, so she was probably desperate to see the real time and was driven to madness from that.”

“Losing her own time?”

Anetheus, overhearing out conversation, stepped in. “So, you’re saying that the people here always need to know what time it is?”

“Yes,” the medic replied, “as time is measured by our clocks, we need to constantly know it in order to know we’re working optimally.”

“I see…” Anetheus murmured.

“Why do people here need to know their personal time so much?” Hermes chimed in.

“Every second that we are alive is a time where we need to fulfil a role in the world.” the medic replied. “We all have finite lives, and eventually we will all die. The people in this country recognise how precious time is, and have dedicated our lifestyle to to take advantage of it as much as possible. We measure every single second in order to do so.”

“You do?” I asked. 

“Indeed, we spend little time eating or resting, and we work most of our lives, fulfilling our roles in society to take advantage of every minute we have.”

“Really? Even resting?” 

“Even resting. The city is powered by people doing some form of work when they are idle, and even now, my role is to inform you about how effective our system is. The technology of our country is very advanced compared to most others, and the people here can be proud of every second of our lives, knowing that we lived to our fullest capacity.”

“I see.”

“But wait,” Anetheus spoke up. “How about the children? Surely, the people here don’t work once they’re born do they?”

“Oh no no. The children here are raised learning the laws and rules of the country, and at age 10, they begin working as well as they grow older.”

“But what if they can’t work?”

“Then they’re cast out.” the medic said bluntly. 

…

A brief silence.

“I…see…” He replied surprisingly calmly. 

With that, the medic’s phone rang, and he promptly picked it up.

“Hm?…Ah, another one?…Understood, we’ll be right there. Well there’s another incident I need to attend to. Enjoy your stay travellers!” He cheerfully stated before he went off to the crowd of medics.

I could feel an air of awkwardness descend. I suddenly flashback to Anetheus’ difficulty with accepting cultures of other countries, and had an internal feeling Anetheus would have trouble accepting the situation.

“Are you okay Anetheus?” I asked preemptively. 

“Mhm!” He replied in a surprisingly relaxed tone. He put his arms over the back of his head and sighed before looking up to the clock tower. 

“It can’t be helped I guess.” 

---

“Thank you for your kindness, we’ll be leaving now.”

“No problem, we hope you enjoyed your stay.”

We checked out at the gate as I revved up Hermes and began to drive. Anetheus took a light step forward before he spread out his wings, and jumped a little to glide in the air. 

“So, how was your first stay at another country?” Hermes asked Anetheus. 

“It was interesting, quite so.” He replied earnestly. 

I contemplated delving further into his thoughts as I drove on

“How did you find the questionable practices of the country?” Hermes spoke up.

Hermes spoke without restraint, “Hermes.” I warned him.

“Nah, it’s fine.” He said surprisingly calmly. I looked over to his side and he seemed to be flying peacefully with a light breeze.

“It was definitely far from something I expected.” He continued. “I admit, the countries in this world have unique traditions that I’m really not used to. They’re very far out and strange, even though I’ve seen a lot of places, they’re usually more confined to common rules that are quite the norm compared to these countries.” 

“A lot of places?” He had slipped out something noteworthy, he said he didn’t visit countries, yet he visited a lot of places with different rules? I wanted to question what he could’ve meant, as while he did prove to be genuinely friendly, a mysterious creature like him with a lack of backstory or origin does raise a few questions.

“I thought you never visited other countries, but countries are the only places with real sets of rules. Then why were you so shocked back then? So what do you mean?”

“I’ll explain at another time, I doubt you’ll believe me off the bat, and I don’t want you to help carry the responsibilities of the knowledge just yet.” 

Ah well, another time it is then.

“Still though,” he spoke up “that country did make me think about some things.”

“Oh, like what?” Hermes spoke up.

“My own time.”

“Your own time, like the clocks they had?”

“Sort of, I meant the time I have alive. Because they’re right, humans do have finite lives, and we do have things we want or need to do before we die. I for one have a very, very large amount left to do, so I’ve really been trying my best to get it done.”

He glided lower and tapped his feet on the ground, launching him up a bit every time his toes touched the floor. It looked like he was doing a strange ballet dance under low gravity.

“But the people of the country taught me something. They let themselves be burdened with that responsibility, the need to finish as much as possible before they die. It’s respectable, but the people there all look like they’re somewhat suffering, and they don’t even realise it themselves.”

He was right. The people in the country were often either tired, worked, and looked pale or somewhat empty. They had dedicated their lives to making the best out of it, without remembering to care for themselves and their sense as people. It was effective, but they were essentially like machines.

I recalled back to the reactions of the people back when the girl died. There were exclamations and  shock, but nobody really seemed surprised outside of that initial moment. It seemed normal, like an act of the norm. I remembered my time during the country where everyone had a watch that marked their time of life. There were similarities in that aspect of the country, but they had the complete opposite practice of the one we had just left. They didn’t bother keeping time and decided to live life peacefully without worrying about time, and used clocks to keep track of how long a life was.

“Time really is a difficult resource to use well, don’t you think?” Anetheus continued musing.

“I guess. We do owe everything we do and have to it, yet, it’s always finite and always going away.”

Anetheus nodded as he leapt again. “You could work every minute and make every second useful and proud to be of, but as the people of the country have demonstrated, it could lead to overburdening and self destruction, and that’s not what I think people should do.”

He leaped again and floated around in the early afternoon sun.

“At the same time though, the other way round also isn’t perfect. You could use your time to make yourself happy, and relax constantly. But then, nothing will be done, you won’t be able to do anything, and you wouldn’t be able to help anyone, or live on your own either.”

“I see your point Anetheus.” I replied, understanding is thought process well. “So, how do you usually spend your time?”

Anetheus leaped again, this time a little longer to go in front of me and Hermes.”

“As I’ve said, I usually spend my time being busy, doing something, working to a goal.”

He paused for a bit before he continued, “But I’ve learned from our experience, that I should also give myself ample time to relax and enjoy my time. I need to work evenly with my responsibilities and tasks, and by no means am I not going to abandon my duties…”

He leaped one last time and began to float again using his wings, turning around as he flew backwards to face me.

“But…seeing these people has made me realise that I seems to pressure myself a little. So I’m going to change that for now.”

His sapphire eyes looked into mine again.

“On this journey, I want to take things more slowly, with you, and with Hermes. I want to enjoy our roadtrip, and have it be fun and interesting, rather than make it a responsibility…will that be alright with you?”

I looked up at his shining figure, and my instincts told me well that he meant what he said. I didn’t know his origins, and I don’t have an idea of what responsibilities he carried. Even so, I thought about the things he talked about and learned from that country. The actions he took, the emotions he felt for someone else. He didn’t look human, but he definitely acted like one. Even if I were to regret this decision later on, for now, I felt that trusting him was fine, and that letting him join was a good idea.

I looked up at the man in gold, and gave him a smile. 

“Sure, lets take our time and make it enjoyable then, Anetheus.”

“Right! Lets have fun then!” Hermes exclaimed.

He let out a spirited laugh and flew in the sunlight, letting it’s bright rays coat his figure. I looked on forward on the road we took, and contemplated our time together so far as our journey continued.

Chapter 1 End.

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