The Narrow Path
"So, where are we headed?"
Morning. I had slept on a hard bed in a dust-choked room, but after the week I had just survived, it felt like heaven.
For the record, Reika and I had shared the room. I was a woman now too, but that did nothing for the guilt. Not that anything came of it — she hadn't even changed clothes, so there was no incident to speak of.
"There's a place called Silberburt to the northeast. It's a river crossing, so every merchant caravan in the region funnels through there."
"Is it actually big?"
"A hundred times the size of this backwater."
"Oh..."
"And it's a merchant city. Merchants look at coin, not the shape of your ears."
That mattered too.
"There's a proper guild there. Sell your materials in that place and you won't get yesterday's half-price nonsense. If you want to go farther, hitch on with a caravan bound for Granmore."
"Granmore?"
"The heart of Silstimore. And its largest city."
A great city. I was desperately curious. How many of this world's magic tools would be there, how many races? My heart picked up at the thought — and then I heard how long it would take, and all the wind went out of me.
"From here to there, you'd need a good three weeks."
"Why is this place so huge..."
I sketched a map in my head. Here was Dorn. Stretch a long, long way northeast and you hit a city called Silberburt. From there, a hard haul southeast would bring you to the great city of Granmore.
At least I had a direction. That much mattered — knowing which way to put my feet. Survival was no longer the goal. I wanted to travel this new world. I wanted to see it. For someone who had always loved fantasy, it was the start of an adventure that could not have been more perfect.
"All right. Let's head for Silberburt first."
"Very well."
Before we left, we stopped by the Adventurer's Guild — or rather, the consignment office — one more time.
"I'd like to register as an adventurer."
The man at the counter looked me up and down. Same expression as yesterday.
"Guarantor?"
"...What?"
"Demi-humans need a guarantor to register. Someone from this village."
"I'll vouch for her. I'm already registered as an adventurer."
Reika said it from beside me, arms folded. The man did not even glance her way.
"Beastkin can't serve as guarantors."
"......"
Reika started to say something. I caught her arm before she could, the way I had yesterday — I had already seen that look, the one that went to her sword.
In the end, I could not register here either.
"If I want to register, we'll have to go somewhere else no matter what..."
One more reason, as if I needed it, to leave this village behind.
We spent what money we had left on supplies. Two waterskins for four copper. Dried meat and hard bread for a silver. Two blankets for six copper. That left us with five copper coins to our name.
"How long will this last us?"
"Six days to Silberburt. You won't starve. If we run short, we hunt."
Six days. Six full days of walking, from dawn to dark.
"What about a carriage..."
"Have you the coin?"
I did not. We asked after a fare on the far side of the village and were told seven silver. Short did not begin to cover it.
And money was not the only thing I was running out of.
Current Total Points: 50P
My points were running on fumes too. Still, a couple of monsters would top that back up. If I felt like it, I could buy as many fifteen-round magazines as I wanted.
The carriage, though — that I could not ride.
Of course, I could shove a gun in someone's face and hitch a free ride. But I was not that kind of villain...
The moment we left the village, the road split in two.
One way was broad and packed hard. Wheel ruts cut deep into the earth, and a signpost stood in the distance.
The other was a narrow track with grass up to the knees, the kind of path that looked like nothing more than a trail worn by passing feet.
"Which way do we take?"
"The wide road takes you through Pelzburg. Walls, soldiers, patrols."
"Walls mean a big town, right? Then that way—"
"Rumor has it they buy and sell elves there."
"Uh..."
The words died in my throat.
"It's the city closest to the Empire. Imperial influence runs so thick you could call it imperial territory and not be wrong. Word is they don't just deal in elves — they round up beastkin too and ship them off. A trading post for that sort of thing, from what I've heard."
At a place like that, I would not just get half price for my materials. I might get sold as one.
Reika pointed to the narrow track with her chin.
"This way. No imperial dogs — but there are bandits."
Both options were about the same, really. One road had people who bought and sold elves. The other had people who bought and sold anyone. Still, a handful of bandits seemed like better odds than a whole city.
"L-let's go..."
Reika stepped into the grass without a moment's hesitation.
Walking was not hard. Compared to being chased through the woods by monkeys, this was a stroll.
Fields ran along both sides of the path, planted thick with something gone yellow and ripe. Wheat, barley, or some crop that belonged only to this world — I could not tell — but it had the homely feel of a country road. Now and then a few low-roofed houses showed in the distance, then fell away behind us.
A wagon passed us once. The driver glanced our way and picked up speed.
Another time I locked eyes with a man working the fields. He straightened, stared at us for a long moment, then bent back to his work as if nothing had happened.
It was just the countryside. The same trees, the same people. Aside from the occasional wagon, it was the kind of rural road you could have found in the modern world.
Still, I was glad. I had always wanted to try a trip like this — a backpacking wander, walking the country with no particular destination. The mood was right.
"Grinning again, are you."
"I wasn't smiling."
"You were."
Around noon, a monster showed itself.
What burst from the grass was a dog-sized quadruped, spines bristling along its back, teeth jutting from its muzzle. I shot before Reika could even drop into a stance.
A muted crack.
One round through the flank. The thing crumpled where it stood.
◈ Points Gained: +40P
"Not bad."
"Pretty fast, right?"
"No. I meant the sound. It's certainly quieter."
Well worth the 1,500 points. Without the suppressor, that single shot would have sent every beast within a few hundred meters running. As it was, a single bird startled up from the nearby grass, and that was all.
Reika sat down beside the carcass and drew her knife. I crouched next to her to watch.
"How do you do that?"
"You mean to learn?"
"Yes."
"You don't start from the back. Split the belly first. Like so."
The blade slipped in smoothly. She was not forcing it — just a thin, sliding cut. I followed the motion of her wrist with my eyes.
"Cut from the back and the hide's worth half. You scar the middle of the pelt."
"Ah... I get it."
"And this one's quills fetch a price. Pull them out and keep them."
I pulled the quills as I was told.
"You know an awful lot, Reika. Have you been an adventurer a long time? Wait — more than that, how old are you?"
Call it a Korean habit, but a single year's difference was all it took to settle who deferred to whom, and I could not help being curious about her age.
"Hrm... I don't recall well. Thirty... somewhere around there, I think."
Thirty. Older than I had expected. But there was something I had to keep in mind: lifespan. Fantasy worlds came with all kinds of races, and they did not live as humans did. The same number of years could be young for one people and old for another.
"If you don't mind my asking... how long do your people live?"
"Not so different from humans. A bit longer. A hundred and fifty, give or take, seems the average."
Thirty out of a hundred and fifty did not seem so old once I thought about it. Humans talked about a hundred-year lifespan these days, and the thirties were still supposed to be in bloom — which meant Reika was, in human terms, barely into her twenties.
Which raised the next question: how old was I, then? Elves were a long-lived race. That was how it usually went. I had never seen another elf and knew nothing about them firsthand, but in story after story they lived a long time. A thousand years was often the baseline.
But what about me? I had simply opened my eyes in this body. Whether it had been newly made or I had been dropped into one that already existed, I had no idea. I did not know how old I was.
So if Reika asked me my age, I would have no idea how to answer.
She did not ask.
"Um... aren't you curious about my age?"
"Anyone can tell you don't even know your own. Never expected you to."
Bullseye.
Before the sun went down, we built a fire a little way off the path.
We spread a blanket and tore into the hard bread on top of it. The texture made me miss even the lukewarm soup from the inn yesterday.
"Reika."
"What."
"If we go to that Gran... whatever city, what's there? You said it's the biggest. Around here, I mean. In this region."
"Granmore. Lots of people."
"Besides that?"
"Don't know. I've never been."
"What? You seemed to know so much I thought you'd been there."
"I've only been on this continent half a year myself. Came down through the northern islands and ended up here."
From what she told me of her route, the island she came from — Sardorim — sat off the continent's northeast. West of it lay a mountain country called Rebenfall, which was where she had been trying to go, until a storm drove her ship onto Astalia, a polar island off the continent's far north.
From there, she had come down to this place.
She was an outsider too.
"You know an awful lot for someone who's only been here six months. Are you sure about that? Or are you just really smart?"
"No. They sell a book in the village. A beginner's guide for adventurers."
She pulled a palm-sized volume from her pocket.
"What?! You had that this whole time and didn't tell me?!"
"You didn't ask, did you?"
"......"
We agreed to sleep in shifts. I would take the first watch and wake her when the night was half gone.
Any man who has been in the military knows first watch is the one you want. She did not seem to have an opinion either way, so I said that was fine and claimed it.
About three hours after she had closed her eyes, my own eyelids were growing heavy. I was just about to wake her when my ears gave a little twitch.
I went still. Did not even let myself breathe. Through the sound of the wind, far in the distance, hoofbeats began. More than one horse.
Horses out in the middle of the night. Wild, or ridden? I had no idea.
But as the sound drew closer, fear got the better of me, and I shook Reika awake.
"What... what's the matter..."
She drew in a long breath through her nose.