Chapter 24: Journey

In a few days, at night they reached the colossal. Seiko is excited. With a lot of energy, Seiko says, "Oh!! Rachid, look at that bad boy."

"I have never seen anything like this.", Rachid is fascinated.

They started to look around. They saw a middle-aged man with a beard staring at the sky. Seiko told Belkhir to see if anything was wrong with the man. Rachid says, "I'm sitting at the corner. Call me when you go."

"OK "

When Belkhir was talking to the man Seiko thought, "Why does this man look very familiar?"

Belkhir came to Seiko. Belkhir says, "This man loves to stare at stars."

Seiko is not satisfied, He says, "Go and tell him whether he knows me or not."

Again Belkhir went to the man and asked him. The man looked at Seiko. Belkhir came back to Seiko and said, "He said he doesn't know you, But he told his name."

"What is his name?"

"Galileo Galilei"

Seiko is shocked. He is frozen.

"What happened?" Belkhir asked with a worrisome face.

"That's the real Galileo. The Father of-"

'I shouldn't say that it may make things worse."

"Father of what?"

Being hesitant, Seiko says, "Father of his daughter."

"You seem to know him."

"I have heard about him." Stumbling a little he says, "Oh, look Rachid is sleeping, We should sleep too."

The sun rose and they woke up. They are walking in the city. Rachid says, "It's beautiful."

Belkhir says, "What did he say?"

Seiko says, "He said it is beautiful."

"Is it?"

Rachid looks at Seiko, Seiko understands he wants the translation. He translates it.

"Yes," Rachid replied.

"France is even more beautiful," Belkhir said.

Seiko says to Belkhir, "You are saying that because that's your country."

"I'm saying it because it is more beautiful than Italy."

"I get it, I get it. Everyone has a different taste."

They stopped in some place and sold and bought stuff and started walking again. Rachid started to learn French from them. One night at a forest they camped. They are near a bonfire.

Seiko asks Belkhir, "Why did you go to Italy? No, tell me about your life."

Belkhir leaves a heavy breath and says, "My dad was a soldier. A few years ago he went to war but never came back. At that time my mother became ill. I was 17 at that time. Because of my father's death, our income became unstable, I could hardly earn to support ourselves. I always suspected she was ill and asked how she feels. Because we were broke she never told the truth. And that led to her death. I was sad. I lost all hope. At that time, someone I knew came and helped me to recover. She brought me from darkness to light. I fell in love with her. I wanted to be with her. But then I remembered I don't have anything. There is no way she will accept my proposal. So I thought I should become rich and propose to her. I started to think about what I could do. Then I remembered, I used to go to my father's friend's house with him. He was Italian. My father also knew Italian. I learned Italian from there. I wanted to use this skill. So I came to Italy. I couldn't do anything. So I started to move the stuff of ships for money. I used my language skill and got more customers. Still, I don't get the money I should get after that much hard work. That's it. That's my life until now."

Seiko says, "So you are going to France to propose to the girl that you fell in love with?"

"Yes."

Seiko looks at Rachid and says, "Do you want me to tell you what Belkhir said?"

"I can understand french now."

"Good."

"But something is bothering me."

"What is it?"

"Your French is different from Belkhir."

Belkhir says, "I thought that too but didn't ask because I thought that's your accent."

'Well obviously it is different, I'm speaking in modern french and you are speaking in old french.'

"Maybe because I learned it differently."

Rachid says, "Suspicious."

Belkhir nods his head. They started to talk to each other.

It takes a few weeks to reach France because they stopped and set up their business, It took a few months to reach France.

Seiko shouts, "We are in France!! Now we can see Monalisa."

Belkhir says, "NO, We can't, we need to go to Paris to see that."

Seiko says, "You betrayed me."

"You never asked where it is."

"Do you know where it is?"

"NO."

"Then why are we going to Paris?"

"Because I know we can find where it is from Paris."

"You better not be lying."

"What is a lie?"

"No need to be innocent. By the way, where are you from?"

"I'm from Paris."

"I knew it! you are forcing us to go to Paris."

"No, I'm not, it was just a mere coincidence."

Rachid says, "Stop fighting. Belkhir, how much time will it take to go to Paris?"

"If we stop by road, and open our business it will take months. But if we just walk it will take a few weeks."

Seiko says, "Obviously we are going to open our business everywhere."

"As expected."

They started their journey again. One morning Belkhir saw Rachid was using his power to freeze Seiko. Belkhir saw it many times in their journey but never asked. This time he asks Rachid, "what are you doing?"

"I'm freezing him," Rachid replied.

"I can see that but why?"

"You don't know?"

"No."

"I thought you knew about it and that's why you never asked even after you saw it."

"You knew I saw it."

"Yes."

"You are scary."

"Maybe."

Then Rachid told him about his illness. After Seiko got normal they returned to the camp. They saw some thieves were stealing their stuff. Seiko and Rachid beat them in an instant and captured some.