Chapter 26
Chapter 26
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Postrum
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It took longer than Jade had expected to reach the village of Postrum.
He had avoided the main roads to evade detection by others and switched to a different carriage midway through his journey, one that seemed perfectly fine at the time. The extended travel had depleted nearly all of his scant funds. Without money for an inn, he had camped near Nahol, leaving him in a pitiful state.
Now that he had finally entered a proper village, he yearned for at least one good night's rest. But his empty pockets wouldn't allow it. What little he had left—precisely enough to buy a horse and provisions to cross the desert, plus a backpack stuffed with miscellaneous items of uncertain value—was all he owned.
"If I'd set out with the emperor's sturdy backing, I could've rented out entire inns in every village along the way."
The houses in Postrum village were all tinged red from the red sands of the Red Desert.
Thanks to advances in alchemy, it was now known that the soil contained iron ore, which gave it the reddish hue. But in the past, people had viewed the desert's crimson shade as an ominous sign, like blood. Of course, such negative superstitions hadn't entirely vanished; myths about the Red Desert persisted even now.
Once inside the village, Jade's first move was to check behind him. He'd glanced back more than three hundred times already. Just as Danel had sensed in Rom, Jade strongly felt that someone was tailing him.
A gust of red sand-laden wind swept through. For a moment, the dust cloud obscured everything just ten steps ahead before settling again.
"Even if there is a pursuer, it'd be hard for them to spot me now after failing to do so this far."
Giving up, Jade entered the village proper and headed to the horse trader.
"A first-timer?"
The horse trader in Postrum was a short old man named Rendli.
"Not exactly my first time, but it is alone."
Before becoming a priest, Danel had once brought Jade to the Red Desert to reveal "a certain secret." This was his first time since then.
"I can't recommend going alone without a guide, lad. The gods' blessings don't reach the Red Desert. Why not wait a day or two? I can introduce you to a guide familiar with it—we'll go cheap since business has been slow."
Rendli offered the advice while feeding the horse meant for Jade its final ration of fodder.
Two other horses stood in the stable, and in the corner sat an old woman who appeared to be his wife, perched on a small chair. She didn't seem asleep, yet her eyes were closed.
"I know the Red Desert is dangerous. They say bandits are plentiful. But my destination is even more perilous than the desert—I can't drag a guide into that."
"You know your stuff. Still, the desert's the desert, bandits are bandits, but lately there's something else dangerous too."
"What's that?"
"Monsters have started appearing in the desert."
Jade found himself staring at Rendli in disbelief.
"Monsters... you say?"
"It's because of them that the village ended up like this. Sure, there were always a few monsters back in the day, but it's gotten serious these past three or four years."
Rendli gestured toward the desolate village beyond the stable door.
"This place might as well be abandoned. The priest we had left, calling it a cursed village. Said he could hear the devil's whispers from the Red Desert."
Through the splintered wooden window frame, Jade could see the church roof with its star cross left broken and untended.
"Have you seen one yourself, by any chance?" Jade asked.
"If I had, would I still be breathing? It's all rumors—I take them with a grain of salt and stay cautious. From my standpoint, though, invisible devils are less scary than real-life bandits."
Jade took Rendli's warning to heart; bandits concerned him more than devils.
"They say there are four or five big gangs. They wander into the village now and then, but since it'd leave them without a rest spot if it vanished, they don't cause much trouble here. Travelers, though? No mercy. If you run into the Kapf Bandits, hand over whatever they demand, bow your head to the dirt, and grovel—that's your best shot at surviving."
"The Kapf Bandits..."
Jade committed the name to memory.
"Knowing the name ahead of time won't help dodge the danger, though."
With a resigned smile, Jade said,
"How much for the horse?"
"95 hass."
"What?"
Jade was stunned.
He had only 90 hass in silver left. He'd planned to buy the horse plus food and water with it.
Come to think of it, a donkey back in Bompay had cost 100 hass. A horse trained to cross the desert at 95 was a bargain.
"Not enough on you?"
Rendli noticed and asked.
"Short by 5 hass."
"Tough to discount that much, but..."
"Got anything cheaper?"
"Horses are horses—no such thing as expensive or cheap ones."
Rendli glanced at the other two horses, looking troubled, then made an offer.
"Take a guide, and I can rent it to you. Return it to the guide at the end. Usually 30 hass for three days, but..."
As Rendli listed prices, Jade cut in.
"No, the Red Desert isn't my endpoint—I've got a long way to go after, so I'll need to buy one outright anyway."
Jade's head spun. He'd already sold everything valuable in the previous village; there was nothing left to do.
All that remained was the silver star cross Danel had left him.
"Father Danel isn't dead. So this isn't a memento! I can sell it."
Even as he thought that, Jade couldn't bring himself to offer it.
Rendli pondered for a moment, then spoke first.
"Fine. I'll knock off 5 hass. But I need a favor in return."
Jade brightened.
"What is it?"
"Teach me a prayer."
"Pardon?"
Jade frowned.
"Judging by your speech, you're from Rom? And that star cross necklace suggests you follow the Ketolic faith... Teach me one of those trendy prayers from Rom these days."
A "trendy prayer" might have made other clerics scoff or rage, but Jade, who understood how ordinary folk practiced their faith, didn't laugh.
"No priest in the village means I haven't prayed properly in nearly half a year."
Rendli nodded toward the old woman in the stable corner.
"My wife's ill. Thought a prayer might help... My memory's shot, so I can't recall the old ones, and I can't read, so no scriptures either. If you can read, just read a few lines and teach me to memorize them. Nothing too complicated..."
Rendli added hesitantly,
"Then I'll call it even for the 5 hass."
Jade hesitated. He wanted to refuse but couldn't find the words.
He couldn't even suggest swapping for another favor. Honestly, one prayer for a horse was a steal; the temptation was too great to resist.
Just then, the old woman with closed eyes turned toward them and spoke.
"That's too much, dear. Trying to buy a prayer with money? He looks hard up— just cut the price and be done."
The old woman was shorter than Rendli, her back hunched, and she coughed harshly. She kept her eyes shut even as she spoke.
Rendli flustered.
"Come on, it's not a tough ask for a 5-hass discount, is it?"
It was true.
In Gerba's fish market, folks would brawl over haggling a single hass, sometimes fatally.
"Still, using money to bait a prayer? Better to ask him to fetch five buckets from the well or something."
"I'm not asking for a prayer—just teach it to me, and I'll say it for her myself..."
As Rendli stammered excuses, Jade approached the old woman.
He knelt on one knee and took her wrinkled hand. She startled slightly, opening one eye. The pus-filled eyeball was clouded white, unfocused; the other wouldn't open at all.
"You can't see?"
Jade asked.
"What can you do at my age? I've seen all the Lord meant me to see."
The old woman smiled faintly with her unfocused gaze.
Jade pressed Danel's star cross to the back of her hand.
"Let us pray."
Rendli watched Jade with keen interest.
*If You continue to ignore me, then do not listen to this prayer.*
Jade thought inwardly.
*And if this prayer displeases You, punish only me. This isn't me abandoning my resolve—it's to ease their worries. Call it selling out for 5 hass if You must. So please, don't touch them out of spite; punish only me. Got it? No whims!*
Jade prayed slowly.
"Lord, grant me to live today as yesterday, and tomorrow as happily as today. If blessings come to me, send them to this one instead. If illness comes to this one, let it find me. If calamity strikes, let it be one we can endure; if one cannot bear it, let the other bear it to help. Until the day You appoint for life, give strength to live each day fully. And when death comes, let it arrive warm as sunlight. In Your name I pray."
Jade finished and lifted the cross from her hand.
Her hand trembled.
"Wh-what kind of prayer is that? Asking my blessings to go to you instead?"
Jade smiled faintly.
"Now you two pray it for each other. I've taught it as promised."
"Even so..."
The old woman looked worried, while Rendli was impressed.
"I'm no church regular, but this is the first prayer I've heard that's so easy to grasp. Which temple taught you that?"
"Oh, just... this and that from various places."
Jade glossed over it, then said,
"Now, I'll teach you a few word swaps to memorize."
"Hmm, bit long for me."
"Repeat it till you get it. It's a 5-hass prayer—too short would be a waste, right?"
"True enough."
"And prayer's about the heart, not the form."
Jade said it, then felt a pang inside.
"Quite right."
After teaching Rendli the prayer and fetching five buckets of well water, Jade finally mounted up and left Postrum.
Rendli packed him three loaves of bread and water, watching until he cleared the village safely.
Learning to ride had been a stroke of luck.
Father Danel had been highly active and well-traveled in his youth, eager to impart travel tips to Jade. Horse riding was one.
The horse felt awkward after three years, but he adapted quickly.
Old tales claimed the Red Desert hadn't always been one. A vast ancient kingdom like Rom had defied the Lord's word, so angels scorched it into this wasteland.
Some said Sodom from the old scriptures lay here.
Danel insisted it was just low rainfall turning steppe to wasteland, worsening into desert.
Compared to the Siha Desert on the southern continent, it was tiny—hardly a true desert. East-west took two days at a leisurely pace; north-south even less. South of the Red Desert lay the Rituaana Principality, east the Luna Principality, north the Kuman Plains.
Jade headed not to any nation, but the desert's heart. At this pace, he'd arrive by midnight.
Baifel's Temple in the Red Desert.
Danel had reminded him of it to his dying breath.
*You explained it in excruciating detail, over and over. And here I am, already missing those tedious lectures in your voice.*
Baifel's Temple in the Red Desert.
Read page 144 backward,
open the wall...,
descend underground...,
and there you'll meet the angel....
On the hundredth repetition, Jade had confronted Danel.
"How many people have you tormented with this wild tale?"
Danel summed it up neatly.
"Two."
"Me aside, who?"
"Who else? Saf. Though Saf didn't suffer much."
"You didn't repeat it to Saf a hundred times, surely."
"Nah, Saf couldn't read page 144 or open the wall, so no need to drill it. Told him eight or nine times, tops. Your reaction says I shouldn't bother with Saf either."
Jade wrapped his head in a turban. It was evening, but the sun still blazed. Heat seared his skin instantly. Waiting for nightfall might've been wiser, but he lacked time in the village.
Jade glanced back. A hazy red sand wind veiled the village almost completely.
"Hm?"
Faintly, he spotted a mounted figure.
At first, he thought it a trick of the eye or another traveler. But as time passed, it grew clear: the rider was approaching him.
Jade spurred his horse. Much later, looking back, the rider was closer.
The Red Desert's east and north had rocky hills and flats, but the west where Jade was had only dunes. Nowhere to hide—he could only flee. Rocks and formations existed, but only if the pursuer hadn't spotted him from afar.
The distance shrank. Either the foe's horse was superior, or his riding skill. Either way, Jade couldn't shake him.
At the tallest nearby dune, Jade wheeled his horse. Sand sank underfoot, making it hard for the beast to steady.
The chase lasted until sunset.
Jade couldn't lose him. Soon, he could make out the rider's face.
It was Franco.